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Many physician practices and hospitals adopt electronic medical records to help coordinate patient care. But more might adopt them if they looked at return on investment, according to one expert, who contends that billing costs, transcription fees and better charge capture all contribute to measurable annual savings.

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Many physician practices and hospitals adopt electronic medical records to help coordinate patient care. But more might adopt them if they looked at return on investment, according to one expert, who contends that billing costs, transcription fees and better charge capture all contribute to measurable annual savings.

Washington, D.C., will institute a three-year program intended to boost the rates of HIV testing in the area, with a focus on teenagers and young people. The program will involve community groups and public schools, which may adopt an updated HIV/AIDS curriculum.

Canada-based TrialStat Corp. will collect SRS-based systematic review data from research institutions and use its own technology to create the world's largest coded reference database to make it easier to reuse data from reference materials. Data will be screened and loaded into the publicly searchable online database, called ESRNexus. Currently there are 300,000 article abstracts and 16 million PubMed article citations.

Public advocacy groups urged the Senate to adopt a national law modeled on legislation in Minnesota that requires disclosure of drugmaker payments to physicians. The groups, joined by some senators, called at a hearing for a national registry of payments so the public can know about the money flow. An an official of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the Senate Special Committee on Aging such registries are complex and difficult to produce.

The CDC has released updated isolation precaution guidelines for hospitals and health care settings that address the emergence of new pathogens, detail administrative support of infection control and suggest use of personal protective equipment. The guidelines are available online from the CDC site.